Scotland pulls the ol' switch-a-roo at World Championship

Thomas Ulsrud chats with David Murdoch as Murdoch wears one of team Ulsrud's flamboyant jackets between ends of the 2011 World Financial Group Continental Cup at Servus Place in St.Albert on Jan. 16 2011.
Amber Bracken/Edmonton Sun

Brewster has been the man for Scotland this Olympic quadrennial, securing an Olympic berth and winning the silver medal the last two seasons, losing finals to Jeff Stoughton and Glenn Howard of Canada.

But at the European Championships, Brewster finished seventh with a 4-5 record. And when Scotland plays Canada Sunday evening, in the first monster match of the Ford World Curling Championship, there will be a familiar face holding the broom and throwing last rocks.

"In Canada this concept, I'm sure, is considered very strange," said Murdoch.

"But it's not like we haven't done this before. And the fact is that it has worked before and it's working for us right now," he said. "We did this in 2005 and 2006."

This time the new United Kingdom coach for this event and the Sochi Olympics, Swede Soren Gran, elected to add Murdoch to the mix of Brewster's team. It wasn't long into the season when he bumped Brewster down to third and has Scott Andrews, Michael Goodfellow and Greg Drummond rotating through the front-end positions. Brewster could be back at skip at anytime if the team is struggling.

"Ask the coach that," said Murdoch. "If you're not playing well, you're not going to be playing. Same as football. The coach makes those decisions. It's a team."

"The chemistry is good," said Murdoch, who played lead for Brewster in junior.

There have only been two World Curling Championships in the last eight years won by somebody other than Canada. And both, in 2006 and 2009, were won by Scotland with David Murdoch at skip.

Other countries have been putting their Olympic teams together like this for years. It is here, in the last World's before the Sochi Olympics where the teams evolve into those Olympic teams. And there are those who believe Canada isn't likely to win another women's Olympic gold medal until our nation starts to do the same thing.

Warren Hansen of the Canadian Curling Association says the Canadian Olympic Committee would probably like to see Canada produce it's Olympic teams in a different way.

But Canadian women haven't won an Olympic gold since Sandra Schmirler in Nagano in 1998. And there are definitely people concerned that Canada may never win another gold.

Hansen says go back to 1987 when Ray Kingsmith led the drive to get curling into the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

"We had a trials with eight teams in each -- four traditional teams and four teams we put together from camps we held in Edmonton and Toronto, done with skill tests and mental tests," said Hansen.

"One of the traditional teams, skipped by Ed Lukowich, won. And one of the teams to come out of the camps, skipped by Linda Moore, won."

Lukowich ended up with bronze. Moore won gold.

"There's still a real mindset against it in Canada, based on the chemistry of four guys playing together. But really, it's the skip picking three guys."

Hansen said look at the situation with the fifth man.

Northern Ontario brought their guy, Matt Dumontelle, from the Brier.

"They could have brought John Morris or Marc Kennedy," he said of Kevin Martin's third or second. "They could have brought Wayne Middaugh. He can play all positions."

Arguably Canada lost gold in Nagano when Mike Harris came down with the flu but played sick because 50-year-old Paul Savage was picked fifth man and wasn't really a viable option for the Olympic gold-medal game.

"All the teams bring coaches now, but the coaches really still have nothing to do with anything. It's the skip. It's like the quarterback coaching the team. What other sport does this happen in? But there's a pretty died-in-the-wool attitude about it all.

"Time will tell," said Hansen. "If things keep slipping and slipping, something will have to be done sometime."

Brewster has been the man for Scotland this Olympic quadrennial, securing an Olympic berth and winning the silver medal the last two seasons, losing finals to Jeff Stoughton and Glenn Howard of Canada.

But at the European Championships, Brewster finished seventh with a 4-5 record. And when Scotland plays Canada Sunday evening, in the first monster match of the Ford World Curling Championship, there will be a familiar face holding the broom and throwing last rocks.

"In Canada this concept, I'm sure, is considered very strange," said Murdoch.

"But it's not like we haven't done this before. And the fact is that it has worked before and it's working for us right now."